Henry Ripley

Hand-clasp of the East and West Henry Ripley

Using fictional, "third-person" names in order to provide readers an "impersonal outlook of the Western Slope as a whole," Colorado pioneers Henry and Martha Ripley detailed their family life and the truly amazing history being made all around them in this Western Reflection's reprint of the Ripleys' accurate and engaging autobiography, Hand-Clasp of the East and West. In 1877, the Ripleys, who operated a newspaper in Canon City, Colorado, decided to join the "San Juan Excitement" by moving to Ouray and starting the Ouray Times. Their month-long journey to the mining boomtown involved driving six wagons over the Otto Mears' toll road from Saguache. However, the only evidence of the road to Henry's recollection was being periodically "held up" for a toll. The first edition of the Ouray Times, was well received - "as much as the first baby." But, in just a few years, Henry and Martha faced strong competition from famed newspaper publisher Dave Day and his Solid Muldoon. After the Ute Indians were removed from northern and central Colorado, the Ripleys decided to leave Ouray and settle in the Uncompahgre Valley. Henry, Martha and their children became farmers and ranchers in the Montrose area and even got involved in mining. Unfortunately, Henry died when Hand-Clasp of the East and West was about two-thirds finished, and it was left to Martha to complete the book. The Ripleys chose the title because they felt that although the eastern United States had much to offer the West, the western United States had just as much or more to offer the East.